Game-Based Learning

This activity has been accepted by a Panel Peer Review

This resource received an Accept or Accept with minor revisions rating from a Panel Peer Review process

These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:

scientific accuracy and currency
usability and
pedagogical effectiveness

Reviewers rated the resources:

Accept
Accept with minor revisions
Accept with major revisions, or
Reject.

They also singled out those resources they considered particularly exemplary, which are given a gold star rating.

Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews. Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions. Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.

This material was originally created for Starting Point:Introductory Geology
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.

Created by Rebecca Teed, SERC, Carleton College

There is no reason that a generation that can memorize over 100 Pokémon characters with all their characteristics, history and evolution can't learn the names, populations, capitals and relationships of all the 101 nations in the world.

- Prensky, 2001a . Digital natives, digital immigrants, On the Horizon 9 (5)

This module is written to assist faculty who want to start using games to help them teach.

The big challenge is to make your learning objective integral to game play.
Once you've done that, you can use games to:
- Make learning fun
- Liven up your classroom
- Motivate your students to learn outside the classroom

What Is Game-based Learning?

Features of game-based learning (GBL):

GBL uses competitive exercises, either pitting the students against each other or getting them to challenge themselves in order to motivate them to learn better.
Games often have a fantasy element that engages players in a learning activity through a storyline.
In order to create a truly educational game, the instructor needs to make sure that learning the material is essential to scoring and winning.Learn more here.

Categories of games that can be adapted for learning include:

Video Games (Digital Game-Based Learning)
Board and Card Games: with descriptions of geoscience games

Why Use Game-based Learning?

Not only does the integration of learning with gaming make science more fun; it also:

Motivates students to learn
Immerses them in the material so they learn more effectively
Encourages them to learn from their mistakes. Learn more here.

How to Teach with Games

To integrate learning and game play:

Work out how to give students points for accomplishing certain goals in a lesson plan
Decide on rewards for the victors
Create game pieces
Test your game before you run it

Learn more here.

Some important concerns include:

Examples

References

A bibliography of essays and articles dealing with the use of games in education.